Entries Tagged 'Linux' ↓

The PICKit 1 is a combination programmer and development board for midrange PIC micro-controllers. In addition to being able to program FLASH pic devices, it also allows them to run and access 8 (charlieplexed) LED’s, a pushbutton switch, and a potentiometer. It’s a great little board for learning the basic of micrcontroller programing, but unfortunately it is not supported by Microchip’s new MPLAB X software (that is written in Java, and supports Linux/Mac in addition to Windows).

You CAN however use the PICKit 1 under linux. The piclab software is supposed to support it (I have not tested this). I use version 1.6 of the PicKit1 flash usb programmer for unix. Even the newest 1.6 version reports checksum errors after writing the hex file, but it does work correctly.

To make it work as an external program in MPLABX I had to select the “format HEX file for download” option under the Linker so that it would not fill all 2048 flash bytes when the program was smaller than that. I am able to manually run the usb_pickit command after building to flash the code, but it’s kind of annoying, as that program has a problem verifying the checksum and reports an error every time (which is interpreted as a build failure) plus, I have to run mplab X with root permissions to be able to access my USB port.

After working perfectly for 4.5 weeks with the same podium setup, my Thinkpad X31 laptop refused to output VGA video to the Extron Electronics video multiplexer box at school.
It appears that the Extron Electronics box is not sending out proper Extended Display Identification Data (edid) which tells the laptop what resolutions it supports. My xrandr command finds the data for my laptop video display screen, but not for the VGA-0 port:

VGA-0 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       60.0*+   60.0
   800x600        60.3     59.9
   640x480        59.9     59.4

I have no idea why this started today. I don’t remember applying any patches to X-org in the last two days, and the technicians in charge of the podium swear that they didn’t change out anything.

I figured out a fix to make it (mostly) work. Tell xrandr to go ahead and force the VGA-0 port to a specific resolution with the following command:

 xrandr --addmode VGA-0 1024x768

This mostly works, but the sync signal is slightly off, leaving a black bar of 20-30 pixels on the left side of the screen. It is also annoying to have to run that command every time I want to display to the podium.

I have recently purchased a NetMedia iViewHD 2M power over Ethernet (POE) camera (retail price $105) for use with ZoneMinder.

This small camera must be hard-wired into a switch that provides power over Ethernet (which will cost another $80-100, but allows you to power up to 4 POE devices). I bought mine used, and plan on buying (up to three) more, but not at retail prices. If I find a similar POE camera with a better lens at the same price I would probably try it out, but at used prices the NetMedia iViewHD 2M is a good deal despite my image quality complaints below.
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How to set up an entirely encrypted disk using Ubuntu 10.04 (LTS):

Use the Alternative installer (text based) ISO image so that you have access to the LVM and Encrypted Disk options.

Assuming you want to keep a windows partition or some other pre-existing partitions intact, you will have to manually partition things instead of using the guided partitioner, so select “manual”.

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After gaining root access on my Motorola Backflip phone, I was (eventually) able to get wifi tethering working using the Barnacle application (version 0.5.1).

In Barnacle, I have “skip wpa_supplicant” checked, the channel set to six (6), and DHCP set up to use the OpenDNS DNS server (208.67.222.222) although the DNS server option may not be needed. (I had to also manually specify the DNS server IP on my client anyways.)

I had to pull some tricks on the client side (Ubuntu Linux) to make everything work. Specifically, setting MTU size to 1250 and setting up my own DNS name server IP.
The script I use to make this all work with ad-hoc networking on Ubuntu is as follows: Continue reading →

One of the best ways to allow other devices to use your phone’s data plan to get on the internet (a process called tethering) is to have your phone become a little wifi hotspot. Then, any wifi device can get internet access via your phone. To do this with the HTC Aria, follow these steps:
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Rooting the HTC Aria on AT&T is made trivial by the program you can download at http://unrevoked.com/

So far the only good reason I have found to root your HTC Aria is so that you can enable wifi tethering, but that requires a few more steps which you can read about in my next post.

In addition to rooting your phone, the unrevoked application adds a custom recovery image to your phone (Clockworkmod recovery – http://www.clockworkmod.com/ )

This open source recovery system allows you to backup your phone to SD-card (nandroid backup), and load other ROM’s.

The Philips 900NC webcam is Linux compatible (Tested with: Ubuntu 8.10, 9.04 & 10.04). Under V4L2 it supports 640×480 at 15fps out of the box. (The webcam’s box claims speeds of up to 90fps, but that is only for smaller resolutions, custom windows drivers, etc. You may be able to get better speed with an optimized Linux driver, but out of the box performance is satisfactory.) It supports ZoneMinder, but only if you set up the exact correct Device Format (NTSC M) and Capture Palette (YUV420).
It has good low-light performance, although it will not work in complete darkness without additional IR illumination.

The XLH-3800 laser barcode scanner is powered by a USB port and pretends to be a keyboard. (It “types” the codes of barcodes when you scan them.)

I am happy to report that this (generic) laser barcode scanner works out-of-the-box with Linux (Tested on Ubuntu 9.10 and 10.04), and does not require any module configuration like the ACAN FG-8100 barcode scanner.

The XLH-3800 is a true laser barcode scanner, meaning that it throws a rapidly scanning laser dot (100 times per second) out into the world, giving the appearance of a laser line. This increases the read range when compared to a CCD scanner, and gives a visual indicator of where to point the device.

I have been using a Motorola BACKFLIP as my primary phone on AT&T for the last month. It is my first experience with the Android OS and smart-phones in general (my previous phone was a Motorola Razor V3xx “feature” phone), as well as my first full QWERTY keyboard on a phone. Overall it has been a positive experience. For the rest of my review, keep reading…
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